Robotics — uses an activated
pincher to grab its opponent and
drag them toward the drop-out
zone.

GCRS provides a great crowd
for South Florida builders to get
together and compete frequently.
The Ram Robotics team makes
trophies for the winners, The Robot
Marketplace gives gift certificates,
and even Fingertech Robotics gave
Silver Spark motors to the winners
at GCRS 8. GCRS is always great
fun, and the perfect excuse to
keep redesigning and improving our
bots. SV

Scheile Museum Clash of the Bots 3 will be presented by the
Carolina Combat Robots. It will take
place in Gastonia, NC on July 14,
2012. For further information, go to
www.carolinacombat.com. SV

INTERVIEW

Tool City Robobots Leverages Combat for Learning

For the past six years, middle and high school students from
across Crawford County, PA have
been building ever-increasing
powerful 15 pound combat robots
to compete in the annual Tool City
Robobots competition hosted by
the Crawford County School
District and National Tooling and
Machining Association (NTMA) of
North West Pennsylvania. This past
April, 32 teams from 19 schools
competed in the most action-packed
hard-hitting tournament yet. After
the smoke and carnage had been
cleared, SERVO sat down and

● by Chris Olin

spoke with the facility advisors from
two of the leading schools in this
program.

Chris Yost has been the head of
the Cochranton High School
Robobots program since 2008. He
has a bachelor’s degree in Science
and Technology, and a teaching
certification in Technology
Education/Applied Engineering and
Technology from the California
University of Pennsylvania. He also
has a Master’s degree in Education
Leadership from Edinboro University.
He is Solid Works CSWA certified,
and has extensive knowledge of
precision machining, parametric
modeling, Finite Element Analysis
(FEA), construction technologies,
digital electronics, graphic and
multimedia design, and mechatronics.